As news of Aliyah's organized march for Carter's cause spreads, tensions and emotions within the community rise. The city tries to stifle the demonstration and the DA attempts to offer Carter a plea deal. Demonized and the target of violent threats, Barb refuses to back down and desperately rallies her own group of supporters to attend the march. Once again placed in juvenile detention, Tony could be charged as an adult. Alonzo urges him to testify against Carter to gain some leniency. Hector reconnects with his girlfriend and promises to turn his life around for her and their daughter. Unemployed and out of options, Russ turns to Mark for help in allowing him to move into Matt and Gwen's house.

Mark A. Perigard

American Crime’s direction is uncertain, but it looks to be one of the more uncomfortable, engrossing rides any commercial broadcast series has taken. Put away the phone and sit yourself down. You’ll want to see where this goes.

Ed Bark

Robert Bianco

In lesser hands, the disruptive flourishes would come across as style for style's sake; here, disruption is the goal. And in a lesser show, the characters would come across as a collection of social "types," chosen to represent their assigned issues. Here, they come across as real, deeply flawed people caught in a system that seems to care for none of them.

Rob Owen

It's a thought-provoking drama that doesn't in its first three episodes seek easy black-and-white answers or scapegoats, painting all its characters in varying shades of gray. And while the characters are flawed, they are not insufferable as on NBC's "The Slap."

Hank Stuever

American Crime is an intentionally exasperating viewing experience; sooner or later, every character does something that’s just flat-out wrong. And yet I can’t remember the last time a network drama had my rapt attention and respect on this many levels at once.

Willa Paskin

Joanne Ostrow

The characters interact, the camera observes. And we marvel--not only at the technique and the acting, but at the fullness of each individual point of view, detailing who these people are and how they got there.

Todd VanDerWerff

Mekeisha Madden Toby

These characters are anything but flawless and one-dimensional. But, they are at their most believable and compelling when they relentlessly defend their children and loved ones and awkwardly try to make sense of their crumbling worlds.

Ken Tucker

American Crime does a good job of using the police-procedural framework to give viewers a structure that’s familiar and compelling. But Ridley makes sure that that structure is also capacious enough to let the actors stretch out, and, at least over the course of the four episodes made available to critics, this yields at least two superb performances.

Kristi Turnquist

Ellen Gray

American Crime is aimed squarely at drama junkies. Especially those who, tired of having their thoughts and emotions prechewed, packaged and set to music, may have fled broadcast TV for cable, Netflix and Amazon.

David Hinckley

Brian Lowry

Sacrificing and caring for one’s family is expected, after all. What this challenging drama dares to explore is whether that relatively narrow focus leaves much room for extending a spirit of generosity--or even a mild benefit of the doubt--to strangers.

Alan Sepinwall

Chuck Barney

Scenes unfold at a leisurely pace and are punctuated with visual flourishes that allow us to soak up moods and emotions. On the other hand, the show suffers from stretches of starchy dialogue, and the uneven pilot episode doesn't adequately deliver on the promise of what's to come.

Matt Roush

Ben Travers

It's the lack of a lighter touch that keeps Ridley's epic ambition from achieving its lofty goals. Overdetermined and under-nuanced, what's meant to feel more authentic than anything yet seen on broadcast TV actually loses its realism as it goes along.

Maureen Ryan

To its credit, American Crime puts race on the table as a topic that the characters confront and talk about with refreshing frankness, but the show as a whole is so predictable and lacking in depth that there's little else to recommend it.